A Tale of Two Cities (1859) by Charles Dickens (1812-1870) chronicles the lives of a number of characters prior to and during the French Revolution. A Tale of Two Cities prompted critics to note that the novel lacked the author’s trademark humor and that, while it does address important social issues, the time and place depicted are far removed from the author’s typical Victorian/Industrial Revolution era concerns. Nonetheless, A Tale of Two Cities has come to occupy a central place in Dickens’s body of work.

The novel’s events begin in Paris, roughly fourteen years prior to the French Revolution. Dr. Alexandre Manette has been released from the Bastille after having been unjustly imprisoned for trying to bring two members of the noble St. Evrémonde family to trial for their crimes. His daughter, Lucie, has traveled to Paris from London with Jarvis Lorry, a family friend, to bring him home. Lucie and Lorry arrive in Paris at the wineshop of Monsieur and Madame Defarge, who are both active in the movement to incite a peasant revolution. Dr. Manette has been staying in a room above the shop.

Five years later in London, the Manettes are called to testify at the treason trial of Charles Darnay, whom they had met during their return from France. Darnay, the nephew of the Marquis St. Evrémonde, has been accused of spying for the French. Darnay is acquitted when his attorney, C. J. Stryver, confuses a witness by presenting his law partner, Sydney Carton, who so closely resembles Darnay that the witness is unable to make a positive identification. Darnay, Carton, and Stryver, all of whom seek Lucie’s hand in marriage, become frequent visitors at the Manette household, which is governed by Miss Pross. In the interim, the situation in France worsens as its citizens grow more dissatisfied with the French aristocracy. Darnay feels compelled to return to France when his uncle runs down a peasant child with his carriage. Darnay pleads with his uncle to make amends for the past deeds committed by the family, but the Marquis refuses.

Darnay returns to England and asks Manette for his daughter’s hand in marriage. Carton is also in love with Lucie, but she refuses his proposal. Carton tells her never to forget that he will do anything he can to help her and those she loves. Six years later, the Bastille is stormed and the French Revolution begins. Darnay again returns to France. When his true identity is discovered, Darnay is arrested and put on trial. Lucie and Dr. Manette come to Paris, and Manette’s sympathetic testimony at Darnay’s trial succeeds; Darnay is released. Shortly thereafter, Darnay is arrested again. In an effort to help, Carton, Miss Pross, and Jerry Cruncher, and employee of Lorry’s, arrive in Paris, where they encounter Miss Pross’s long-lost brother, Solomon, whom Cruncher recognizes as John Barsad, the man who accused Darnay of being a spy almost fourteen years before. At Darnay’s trial, Defarge testifies against him, claiming that Dr. Manette is the second accuser, presenting papers he recovered in which Manette chronicled the various crimes of the St. Evrémonde family. Darnay is found guilty and sentenced to death. Carton blackmails Barsad, a prison turnkey, and gains access to Darnay’s cell so that he may pose as the Frenchman and take his place. Lucie and Darnay escape to England, and Carton sacrifices himself, taking Darnay’s place at the guillotine.

Though A Tale of Two Cities was immensely popular with general readers, many of Dickens's contemporary critics found fault with the novel, often falling into comparisons of A Tale of Two Cities with his other works. Regardless of the initial criticisms leveled at the novel, A Tale of Two Cities has come to receive a great deal of praise from modern critics, and it continues to be included on high school and college reading lists.